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Comment I wonder... (Score 1) 75

This *might* be an avenue alternative to ion engines for flights that don't stray too far from the Sun. LEO-Moon, Lagrangian Points, inner planets. And it could be combined with ion and rocket propulsion.

You can't store all the propellant at extreme pressures simply because the tank needed to contain these pressures would be extremely heavy. There's a fine balance between weight of the tank and savings on storing pressurized fuel (both energy stored as pressure and more fuel fitting in). We're at "state of art" here and can't push that much farther.

But we can afford a *tiny* extreme-pressure tank, and we have weightless unlimited solar energy at cost of fixed-size, fixed-weight solar panels.

Run the pump with solar power, gradually pressurizing the fuel to quite extreme pressures in the dedicated, tiny, very durable tank. Release it through a narrow nozzle at extreme speeds. Speed it up even more through combustion or electric field of ion propulsion. You're converting solar energy to extra delta-v with no extra fuel usage. You have just the fixed cost of the pump+buffer tank infrastructure and they can be kept really tiny, since we don't try to get a high throughput of the fuel (and have limited energy input anyway), just to increase the propellant stored energy by transforming electricity into pressure.

Comment Re:Systemic and widespread? (Score 1) 489

but in a large country statistically rare occurrences happen with distressing frequency

These people are a minority, out of the dozens of LEOs I know I can only name one that falls into this category.

I felt a certain need to point out these two parts of your well written post just to remind you of your own words when it comes to the second quote.

Comment Re:Are you retarded? (Score 1) 56

Instead of taking values of keys (which would be a poor seed), take timing of keypresses. If the calculator runs at 1MHz, run a loop that takes 10uS per iteration, and count how many iterations it took between keypresses, modulo 100. No human is capable of timing their keypresses to 1 millisecond with *any* precision, nor correlate the keypresses to any fixed multiple of 10us period, so the sub-millisecond part of timing is entirely random.

So, you're getting about 7 bits of entropy per keypress. Double that for key release. 14 bits per push, d12 is around 3.5 bits of entropy so mash your buttons for a total of 18 keypresses and you have your key.

Comment Re:The perfect summary of the case: (Score 1) 365

So much for a reasonable discussion. The second your claims are challenged or disproven, you resort to verbal violence. And I'm sure if you had the opportunity, it wouldn't only be verbal. And then you rage when people don't want to treat you seriously.

So typical. Seeing the straw in other's eye...

Comment Re:The perfect summary of the case: (Score 1) 365

I hope you realize your mindset is what caused the most recent (and ongoing) recession - "the sub-prime mortgage credits" granted to people, who were clearly classified as a high-risk group that would cause severe losses on the average due to failure to pay them - but since they happened to be covered by anti-discrimination laws, the credits had to be granted anyway.

That's when political correctness trumps plain business sense and plain scum can get privleged treatment simply based on their skin color.

The blacks, instead of trying to force more acceptance through laws, should first get to cleaning up their own backyard and simply reduce the reasons that acceptance is so hard to come by: glorification of violence and crime, the "I deserve, you owe me" attitudes, poor ethics, and above all ostracization of these of their society, who grew successful through honest means and education.

Unfortunately, all these anti-social behaviors are ingrained as their "culture" and defended fiercely; they form a self-destructive society and then they resist if the destruction of their society spills out and is fought back.

And these, who broke out of the trap, suffer mistrust and discrimination simply because they are still suspect to be "wolves in sheep skins". And the prevalent belief that they are unable to fail on their own - that all their failures are a result of discrimination - really doesn't help things.

Imagine a situation: There are two black girls that join the college. One studies, works hard and passes all the exams just fine; not brilliantly but well on par with other good students. The other doesn't. She hangs out with the low-life, she choose the life of parties and drinking. When exam time comes, she fails along with fellow white party animals, but unlike them, she submits a complaint that she was discriminated against, and threatens the school with lawsuit. The school yields and grants her the diploma.

The two show up for a job interview. They have the same diplomas. The employer knows about their skill only basing on their diplomas (needs an expert in a field he's a layman in) and has a good clue about practices of extortion of such diplomas. He may choose either of them, or a white graduate who didn't have the leverage of discrimination lawsuit. He has a good business sense, and picks the low-risk white. ...and in this equation the black girl, who worked hard, gets the shortest end of the stick. But who's at fault here? The employer, who puts good business above political correctness? Or maybe these, who allowed the situation where the party animal was able to extort her diploma? Her friends, who gave her the advice "Party on, you're black, you're safe."? Government, that created a law prone to abuse, and as result deterrent to its intended purpose? Her family and surroundings, which reinforced the "they owe me, and it's always their fault" mindset instead of giving her firm work ethics?

It's the "few rotten apples" problem, except the rotten apples are quite numerous and any attempt to "un-rot" them is touted an assault on the black culture.

Comment Re:Adopt the German Rules (Score 1) 331

The thing is that getting 50% of your pay means the business is going to balk at throwing it at anyone who doesn't actually have access to 'classified' knowledge; the sysadmin knowing the entire network, high-up managers with insight into future company plans and so on. So if you're laid off, and you get 50% of your normal pay, you probably in most cases had a job where you could put something aside, and with that 50% pay you will have a much longer time to find a different job, AND you can choose something at a low pay that isn't competing. You could manage the network of that non-profit organization you've been helping out at anyway, for one.

Having your entire pay removed, AND being told not to work with anything that Amazon might at some point in the future decide to dabble in? Yeah, welcome to unemployment.

Comment List of banned jobs. (Score 2) 331

"As a current employee of Amazon and looking for a different work, with reference to Non-Compete document# xxx I have signed, I am requesting a comprehensive list of jobs and domains which I'm forbidden to participate in. Currently my job as a janitor of warehouse X leaves me with very little to no knowledge of what products or services are in development, manufacture, marketing, sale , offered or otherwise provided by Amazonof any product or service that competes or is intended to compete with any product or service sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon, and especially the ones it intends any of the above in the future. Since I must know if I'm allowed to perform any of jobs there are openings for, I require this information, so that I don't violate my Non-Compete."

"Please deliver the printed list to my house at [...], as I'm unable to rent a truck to take it home from work."

Comment Re:The perfect summary of the case: (Score 1) 365

Yes, discrimination against "High-litigation-risk" minorities. The gender/race correlation against said risk makes it appear like gender or race discrimination, but in essence it's just a good business practice to avoid employees that can ruin your business.

The fact feminists thought ruining their employers is a good gender equality promotion tactics... uh.

Comment Re:From Mall of America visitor rules: (Score 1) 241

It's almost like America is a country where violence is PG-13, but nudity is NC-17.

Oh wait.

Seriously though, the main problem in America seems to be a culture of glorifying violent actions in one way or another. From the classic examples of how geeks and nerds get treated in school by the 'cool' jocks to the frothing "MY GUN OR MY LIFE!" mentality some people exhibit I can only sit here and quietly shake my head at the world-leading super-power who wants to tell everyone else how to do things.

To be quite honest, I'm not sure who's more scary. The extremists east of me ... or the ones west of me.

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